Capt. Timothy Mintor, No. 5965 in the blue shirt, ran in the 2014 Army Ten Miler in October.

Weight Loss Gives Recruiter Healthier LifeBy Lynsie Dickerson, USAREC, Public Affairs OfficeMarch 17, 2015 Capt. Timothy Minter knows what it means to make a lifestyle change. He now exceeds Army PT standards and runs long distance races, including October 2014’s Army Ten Miler. This hasn’t always been the case. “I was a heavy-set guy,” said the 1st Recruiting Brigade Staff Judge Advocate. “I was a chubby kid, I was heavy-set in high school, but college is when it really got out of control.” Minter attended the University at Buffalo in New York to study chemistry. During his freshman year, he gained the dreaded ‘freshman 15’ and it didn’t stop there. “At one point in college I hit 300/305 pounds and had a 46-inch waist,” he said. “That’s not very healthy.” Bad eating habits caused the weight gain, said Minter of his steady diet of burgers and fries. Eating unhealthy can be easy to do when your friends are doing the same thing, he added. Minter’s poor eating habits in college caused more health issues than just weight gain. “I didn’t have a lot of energy,” he said. “I definitely got a lot of head colds and chest colds. So I definitely was not at my healthiest.” “He reached a point after college where he didn’t want to feel like that anymore,” said Eileen Minter, Minter’s mom. After graduation, Minter stayed at the university to attend law school. It was during his first year of law school that he decided it was time to make a change. Minter, who has a history of exercise-induced asthma, received medication to get the asthma under control. He began working out and running on the treadmill—going a little further every day. He began listening to music during workouts to keep himself motivated and distracted from his dislike of running. He cut back on unhealthy eating—including fried food and fast food—and began eating smaller portions. Changing one’s lifestyle can be a struggle, Mrs. Minter said, but “he persevered through it.” “Once I started realizing, ‘holy cow, I’ve gotten from 280 to 240 to 220,’ that’s when the success fed on itself,” Minter said. “Then I started gaining confidence. Those factors, starting in about January of 2005, got me down from about 290 pounds to about 175 pounds by September of 2006.” Being healthy and physically fit set Minter’s life on a course that he had not previously envisioned. “I remember the moment when I realized that I had just run two miles in a time that would qualify me for the Army physical fitness test,” he said. Joining the Army “was not even on my radar,” Minter said, but he realized that his physical fitness provided him new opportunities. “It opened up a door I didn’t know existed for me,” he said. “I had other options that I had not considered.” Minter graduated from the University at Buffalo’s law school in 2007 and was directly commissioned into the Army. He has served with the III Corps on Fort Hood, Texas, deployed to Iraq, and served with the First Army at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. He has been on Fort Meade with USAREC since 2013. Since getting into shape and eating better, Minter has experienced several health benefits. “I have more energy,” he said. “It’s hard to express, but when you're that heavy and you're lugging that much weight around, you don’t want to move. Walking across the parking lot is a production. “I’m literally healthier,” he said. “I’m literally not getting sick as often. And when I do, it’s not knocking me down for the count as often.” Minter has also been able to use his experience to help other people. While at Fort Hood, he met an E4 who had gotten to be about 60-70 pounds overweight and was having a tough time dealing with it. Minter could relate to the man and helped him get into better shape. “Having been there means I can help other people,” he said. “That was a door that was opened up because most people in the Army don’t have that experience. Most of us don’t come in having been anything other than fit.” Minter said he learned the hard way how to deal with setbacks, which are inevitable when trying to get into better shape. “The key thing that I had to learn and now tell people is, take it slow,” he said. “There’s no shortcuts. There will be setbacks that you just have to get around. There’s going to be a day where you blow your calorie plan. Don’t let that be an excuse to do that tomorrow and the day after. Don’t let one bad day become one bad week.” Eileen Minter said her son’s transformation made an impact on her, as well. “It’s kind of inspirational,” she said. “It makes you think, ‘if he can do that, I can do that. I can watch what I eat and have a healthier lifestyle.’” Losing weight is possible if you keep trying, Minter said.“Don’t let the setbacks you’ve had in the past and you’ll have in the future stop you.”